“Everybody Have Their Own Ways of Talking”: Designing Writing Instruction That Honors Linguistic Diversity

Enacting culturally sustaining pedagogy includes supporting students’ development and use of their primary languages and dialects. A commitment to honoring linguistic diversity requires explicit attention in both instruction and assessment practices. Based on the experience of teaching a four-week summer writing class to mostly African American middle school students, the author describes instruction that was specifically designed to align with the concepts of code-meshing and constructivism, as well as an assessment that encourages the use of multiple dialects and languages. Descriptions of lesson plans are included.